Engineers have started to hand assemble the first "real" Chevy Volts -- the finalized pre-production test models. (Source: General Motors)

Newly built car will be used for critical testing

The Chevy Volt, General Motors' pride and great hope for the future, has entered the pre-production phase, with engineers assembling a vehicle that looks identical to the design that is planned to be coming off the assembly line late this year. After months and years of waiting, GM's launch of the first mainstream electric vehicle is almost at hand.

GM Executive Director for Research and Development Dr. Alan Taub, speaking at a conference at the North Carolina Solar Center at NCSU, says that he believes the Volt will be integral to GM's turnaround. He stated, "The key is to be ready when the market rebounds with technologies and vehicles that people got to have. We really think the Volt represents the next generation in propulsion technology around what we are calling the reinvention of the vehicle. It's going to be electrified drive. It's going to be connected to the world through electronics."

The new pre-production models will be play a critical role in preparing for the vehicles deployment. They will be used as integration models, tweaking minor parameters to help lower wind resistance. They will also be battered and bruised to make sure the vehicle is road-worthy.

Previous "test drives" by the press in "Volts" were not really a Chevy Volt -- rather, they were a similarly designed Chevy Malibu or Cruze-based test mule. The current production marks the first Volt of the finalized design to be produced. The cars are being built at the Technical Center in Detroit, MI. It takes two weeks for engineers to hand-assemble one of the cars.

GM spokesman Rob Peterson cheered the news, stating, "The purpose for the integration vehicle builds is two-fold. First, they validate our production design, vehicle safety and performance capabilities. Just as important, the build activity provides valuable insight into the final vehicle assembly process to ensure a high-level of build quality and manufacturing efficiency when production begins in November 2010."

By mid-July, GM will have ramped up the pre-production to a rate of 10 vehicles per week. GM will have a fleet of 80 pre-production Volts by the fall. The Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly will start mass producing pre-production models next spring, providing "several hundred" vehicles to invade showrooms across the country.

Automotive industry experts say that vehicles like the Volt face a tough road ahead, but may offer solutions to critical environmental and national security problems. States, Anne Tazewell, of the North Carolina Solar Center at NCSU, "There are a lot of variables, and one is our will to continue investing in this. We have an environmental imperative and we really do have an economic imperative because of our reliance on imported oil. But we're also kind of battling the more immediate economic situation.”

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This is how far they have come on $3B. Great, isn't it? I mean, seriously. Who needs to spend $1B designing ONE new car, then ask the gov for another $2B just to finish it? And here they are dragging it out even further, trickling out a few "pre-production" units. Do you know what kind of car I could make with a $3B budget? It would be insane, and I don't care how much testing and safety hoops I would have to jump through, how many workers I would need crank out a medium volume of units, or how many vendors I would need to go to for parts. I just can't fathom this modern age needing $3B to develop ONE new car...just insane.

And to Toyota, Honda, GM, etc...Eff your damn planned obsolescence on these things. Put a damn DIESEL *generator* on board, charge a modern lithium battery pack, ditch anything resembling a transmission, and put incredible efficient brushless motors in the wheels. Stop producing these tiny little baby steps along the way. I mean, Toyota puts a solar panel on the roof and hooks it up to what? The freaking HVAC system ONLY????? You mean you can't trickle that solar cell juice into the battery pack when its parked outside for 9+ hours a day?? Are you kidding me? You really have to wait 3 years before you make that a *feature*...you're killing me auto manufacturers.

That and I'm frankly tired of this idea that GM has been doing nothing to help pull itself out of their current predicament. They've made a hell of a lot more interesting/desirable vehicles over the past few years than the likes of Toyota or Honda, there's just this assumption that either they haven't or their quality is lacking or whatever. I mean, Honda's new big thing is a car that looks exactly like a Prius! Where's the innovation? If GM tried that, what kind of uproar would there be?

As much as I don't like advertising, GM's recent commercials hit the nail on the head.

Ya i know, you'd think that if they got government money they would also try to lean themselves down a bit by closing dealerships, discontinuing lines like maybe Pontiac or GMC, cutting jobs and trying to renegotiate with the UAW and CAW.

Damn them and their taking our money and buying more planes instead of selling off the ones they have. And then they pay their CEO MILLIONS instead of asking him to take a 1$ per year salary like Fritz Henderson.

Honda well if I could get into a vehicle they made I could maybe actually drive one to see how it feels but from working on them I can say they are 90% garbage. Especially the Ridgeline. I'm sorry but if your not going to make a proper truck and your just going to make a joke out of it why do you do it?

Mazda isn't too bad though. I have to say I would drive a Mazda. As long as it was the Mazda 6 or the RX-8. Everything else no thanks.

I totally don't understand Toyota's appeal. Every Toyota I've ever been in has the most plain jane plastic interior that looks the same regardless of the model. It baffles me that people seek these cars out.I have always owned American cars and trucks and have never had a problem (and loved every one of them). I admit I have never owned an American economy car or sedan which is where I think they mostly got in trouble but I refuse to believe that Americans can't build desireable, quality cars that everyone will want to buy...

Last weekend, someone just grazed my wheel when they didn't stop at a stop sign. If my car has electric motor wheels.. I probably wouldn't be able to drive my car without a fairly expensive replacement...

Wheel Hub motors make alot of sense from an efficieny standpoint. Similar to Ductless Fans on Airplane engines. But from a service and safety standpoint... they have work to do

Farva: I'd buy a ten million dollar car. Thorny: That's a good investment but I'd still pull you over. Farva: Bull Shit. You couldn't pull me over, and even if you did I'd activate my car's wings and I'd fly away.